Fire Reporting - Using data to stop fires before they start

More than half of the wildfires that occur in Arizona are human-caused and most of them preventable. Historical fire data compiled by firefighters, fire managers, and investigators is used to help identify common causes of wildfires and locations of high occurrence. The information helps determine how best to focus our educational approach, and increase the effectiveness of prevention, patrol, and monitoring efforts.

The map below shows fires of human and "unknown" fire cause status, on or near BLM managed public lands, between 1980-2012. BLM Arizona's fire reporting (1202) system data was used to develop the map. Typically, fires labled "unkown" are human caused without the designation of a specific cause or those in which lightning could not be ruled out 100%.

What do you notice?

Many of the fires are occuring along roads and highways. Tight clusters of dots also indicated where we need to concentrate our prevention and education efforts.